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Hackable Christmas Presents?
An Anonymous Coward asks what many of you may start thinking about in another month...if you already haven't: "While sitting thru various classes..I started wondering today what I'll drop hints to people with money for what
to get me for Christmas..I want something to hack on and with..but preferably in the sub $300 dollar category. Remember the fun of hacking things like the C64 or
Spectrum or whatever? A fun home machine to hack on.. preferably not a PC (though I know you can get them in that price range) but something a little different. A cheap ARM or Mips based machine or something. Suggestions from anyone?"
Want to have fun with embedded development? How about the "cool" factor of running Java on an embedded system, one which is embedded in Legos? Check out Lego Mindstorms.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
Ahhh
they are big to wrap but watch their faces when they open it !!
http://mrhide.pinnesota.org
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If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
What, me worry?
Now that would be an awesome toy to hack on. You could make some pretty durable robots with that.
Add some extra hardware to allow it to understand simple commands, then you could almost make a usable home robot.
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If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
The Dreamcast is an ARM and MIPS-based machine, and highly hackable. It's also nice and cheap, so you could even suggest it as something your kids could split in on for you. (As long as they don't pull a fast one and be the ones who end up using it all the time. ;-)
PDAs are a lot of fun to hack. The Agenda runs GNU/Linux and is powerful enough for most tasks.
On "http://www.agendacomputing.com/", it's available for $249.
No, please, not yet. Don't mention the C-word for at least a month. I want to go to Japan to escape Xmas - they are pleasantly unclear on the concept there. Sometimes they make a token effort - one department store had a christmas display showing father christmas nailed to the cross.
Anyway, you don't need to go out of your way to give a true hacker a hackable device. In fact, its oxymoronic. A hack is where you figure it out yourself and modify something in an unforseen way. Giving somebody a "hackable" toy is condescending.
Slightly offtopic - I plan on making a homemade EEG (Electro-encephalogram, scan brainwaves) for an Xmas present to myself, I can handle the software side, but can anyone tell me what components I need to get some sensible signal into the serial port.
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
Hack on something you may not have before. Check out some of the Ports of NetBSD. In particular, the Dreamcast and the Playstation 2. Or maybe the HITACHI Super-H family based Windows CE PDA machines are more your style.
What were the skies like when you were young?
doesn't anybody learn simple escape artist
and slight-of-hand magic anymore nowdays?
must everything have "no user servicable parts"
(and batteries not included) with the box?
magic is technology in its purest form.
a sister ;)
you can even reprogram her brain,
and sometimes it's quite fast!
also exists in "brother" version.
(bZen
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It isn't easy being the parent of a six-year-old. However, it's a pretty small price to pay for having somebody around the house who understands computers.
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life, and I'm feeling good! -- Muse
Just did a search on e-bay and found lots for around (US)$15. This was the machine I started hacking on.
Eye, says I.
I'm giving my brothers 3Com Audreys this year. These are really hackable and are great little toys.
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
They are still as much fun to hack as they were 10 years ago. Off course, I mean a real amiga not one with an hybrid PowerPC/M68k board as they really suck. An amiga 1200 would be my choice.
Why not get a TuxScreen ? With a Strong Arm processor + 16MB EDO/4MB flash, touch screen, PCMCIA/serial... for just $99. It is a dream for any geek.... (It has also been slashdotted.)
It is not only hackable, in fact, please hack it... It sells at a price probably lower than the parts (est to be around $300)!!! Kudos to Tim Riker from tuxscreen.
I just said that someone out there might pay you to take it away.
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If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Hackable toys...
Want some programable robots? how about just robot arms? then here.
Still more robot resources... (I am looking for killer robotic laser-beam eyes, if anyone has a link...)
Hackable portable DVD player, (might break the price limit though)
whoops, coffee's done...
Here is one of the more interesting toys I've gotten lately, the 3com Audrey. Now on sale at TigerDirect for $89. Take the plunge and get the 3com 3c19250 USB Ethernet adapter, available Here for $30.
The quick breakdown on the Audrey, they run QNX 6.0 out of a flash disk, and have a browser, mail program, scheduler, memo pad, and some other tools built in. It can also sync with your PalmOS device. Hardware-wise, it is a Geode 200mhz processor, with 32 megs of ram and a 16 meg flash. It has a built in 56k modem, 2 USB ports, an infrared keyboard, 640x480 touchscreen, stereo sound with built in speakers.
Once you have followed the directions listed in the threads at the I-Appliance BBS you will be able to install other applications from QNX 6.0, or even upgrade your system library so you can run 6.1 binaries. People have turned this unit into remote terminals, digital picture frames, mp3 players, home automation terminals, etc. You can't put linux on it because it (yet) because it doesn't actually have a BIOS, but once you get familiar with QNX you really won't mind. You get download QNX 6.1 for free, there ISO is Here. It is a pretty nice OS in its own right.
I've got two Audreys, I use one to run QNX-based ICQ and AIM, so I can dualboot to play ReVolt or take apart my main machine for whatever reason. The other one is my girlfriend's and she uses the builtin apps for scheduling etc plus for web surfing in the bedroom.
The only downside to the Audrey is that its pretty... Shall we say... Lacking in testosterone. Everything from the shape of the unit, to the bootup giggle, to the layout of the manual, to the clear, oddly shaped stylus... Definately was being marketed to the fairer sex. But that's ok, cause chicks will dig it.
Squash
Most people know the value of a second hand PDP?
That is amazing, my boss didn't even know the value of a GREAT shape 45U Rack that the company tossed out, into my pick-up truck, until after I took it home and then let him know what I could get for it.
I will be sure to ask him the value of an old PDP. Especially since he is already planning on giving me a fully functional AS/400 with a pair of terminals.
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If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Ya know, I constantly hear about being able to easily get these cheap PCs. I'm gonna ask a stupid question -- WHERE? Every time I go look I can only ever see systems that are closer to like $800. I've desperately been looking to snag a cheap machine for a linux server, and had to rely on the kindness of strangers to give me castoffs, which often don't work (such as the current one that has a dead bios battery I can't seem to replace :().
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Rumor has it that VM Labs is about to release a development kit for "NUON enhanced" DVD players. The Samsung N501 is probably the best of those available now (older NUON players like the Toshiba SD2300 don't support CD-Rs). There are discussions about this at NUONtalk.tv.
(Even setting aside the hackability factor, the N501 is a very cool DVD player: Jeff Minter's Virtual Light Machine + MP3 playback = mind altering eye candy.)
ps. Anyone want a copy?
"He who possesses little is so much the less possessed... Thus spoke Zarathustra."
http://www.homestead.com/hackfurby/ is the classic Hack Furby website by John Tokash.
You can also hack the Cue:Cat, the LEGO Mindstorms kit, and the entire universe of reality in what is called reality hacking -- just don't collapse the wave function, or poof! we will all disappear.
But the coolest, technologically most disruptive hack has got to be the hacking of the Artificial Mind at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mind where 350 plus open source AI projects are rushing to bring you the ultimate Christmas present of the Technological Singularity.
Wouldn't it be fun to be able to run free software on free hardware?
Works for us college kids....
donating the money to support the victims of the 911 attacks? Or, donate money to charities that are helping the children in Afghanistan?
Just a thought....
If I had a Commodore 128D with the monitor and all of the disks working, I could have some serious hacking fun.
Ah I remember the things I used to get up to with my C64 (One of my first hackable Christmas presents). Then when the Commodore 128 came out I did some pretty cool hacks to the Machines in display in K-mart. But not as nasty as what I did to the TRS machines in Radio Shack! Those where the days.
Maybe a G3 phone direct from Japan could be fun or going to Japan this Christmas might be fun especially in Akihabara.
-Jasa -- Linux - The SOURCE will be with you, ALWAYS
check out the boards and the local computer fairs for old laptops, the black and white 486's are really cheap.
then see what you can get done with 'em. home made internet appliances, email stations, mp3 songlist fetching and playing from bathroom, whatever...
i am thinking of taking an anchient winbook with infra red and 10baseT and useing it as a master remote control unit.
but it won't be able to get me my beloved grey goose and lemonades... which is why i posted all those robot links earlier... gearheads? build/sell me a bartender.
i used to own a PDP 11/03L and a MINC-11 (PDP 11/23 with data acquisition boards). both were free, by people who just wanted it the hell out of their lab. it's really no more useful for hacking than, say, a TRS-80 or an Apple II...
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
I wanted to be terse. But slashdot refuses messages that are shorter than the subject and/or written in less than 20 seconds.
You can get a Sun Blade 100 for less than a $1000.
The Blade 100 is a fine machine, it has a
64-bit Sun UltraSPARC-II CPU (500MHz) inside,
an IDE disk, CD-ROM drive and even a soundcard!
It makes a perfect 64-bit workstation. Don't
bother with a Sun monitor though, they are too
expensive for no good reason; you'll be better
off with a normal PC monitor.
The CPU is not particularly fast for everyday
tasks, but floating point and integer maths
performance rocks ("openssl speed" beats an
Intel PIII 600MHz by a factor of three!)
A very nice Christmas gift indeed.
I know, I'm on slashdot.org, but does it have to be always somethings hackable? What's up with something different? The new Pennywsie Album (you can ogg it if you want to), tickets to next years warped tour ;) etc. There are so many cool things that are nor hackable...
I prefer buying hackable things by myself.
X
Boycot? Blackout? Subscriptions?
I don't care!
Then, hack it:
We've already got various customization hacks worked out. It's only a matter of time before someone figures out how to:
Supplies are dwindling. You may want to go ahead and by one (or four) now.
One simple rule for its versus it's
Would be kinda neat to take apart a GBA and try to get it to run other things-- nothing in particular jumps to mind, but hey, at $100, why not buy extra parts and try building something like the old GB camera for it?
Or, y'know, you could blow the other $200 on games and take your mind off work once in a while.
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
Ok, mod be down for shameless self promotion! But you gotta admit, it doesn't get much more hackable than this.
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
The IPAQ 3635 is a mid range PDA for which linux is available. 16MB Flash, 32MB RAM, and a host of other niceties.
Right now it can be had for $450 or less new at some places, and compaq has a $150 rebate on this model, lowering it further to $300 or so. Hacking Linux on it would be great fun, and the hardware is pretty much exposed to the world, so hacking the hardware (if you're into that) can yield a great deal of fun as well.
-Adam
"Okay, we've destroyed his credit rating, repo'd his car, owes money to an escort agency, and is a wanted felon. What else?"
"List him as pregnant."
-UserFriendly
I've got a dreamcast, and I've read those things can be hacked pretty well, I've seen web servers, linux distributions, and more running on it. I bet if you learned the hardware better, you could spend quite a long time with it. and they're only 80 bucks, now :)
This bit of info was brought to you by the letter Q. Thanks, Q.
What about a Apple Newton?? Lots on ebay, very tough, multithreading, 166Mhz ARM (a real one, not Intel half CISC one...), lovely to use (very impressive actually). I even think it's better than EPOC. I haven't looked under yet though...
I mean, there are a ton of ways to program the little guys, and it's vaguely practical too. And of course people have used them to drive robots and stuff using their onboard serial/usb port. I picked up a handspring deluxe for <$100 a week ago at Fry's.
:-)
:) ]
Here's some programming-palm linkage:
Lisp (scheme)
waba -- micro JVM (~71k), quite cool if you're into Java
extra classes and tools that work with waba, really nice data storage classes for example
a ui gen program for waba, written in waba
super waba, a bigger derivation of waba
waba community site
[yeah, I've been having lots of fun with waba
All of the above is free (beer & speech). LispMe you can actually hack code ON the pda. PocketC also allows you to hack code on the pda, but it is shareware (not _that_ expensive, about $18 iirc, the runtime is free). The java stuff you compile on your machine and HotSync across onto the target. And of course both Palm and Handspring have developer sections on their sites with tool stuff and doc sets you can nab for free.
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
+5, Funny!
Mount Mom to spawn child process
Kill pregnancy thread prematurely
Alright, usually I wouldn't post something like this, but you may want to wait until Tuesday afternoon before submitting your holiday wish list to your significant other.. Why you ask?
Apparently, Apple is planning to announce some "breakthrough Digital Hub" device.. There's a lot of speculation floating around, and rumors that Apple's iTunes, Quicktime, and "another unnamed project" group are responsible for whatever this thing does.. I'm going to spread anything specific, but I wouldn't be surprised if Apple releases a consumer machine based on a combination of the cube and the iMac to replace the iMac.. WHo knows what Apple's up to, but I'd pass this along so you aren't kicking yourself for turning in the list a day early..
You can make your own serial data cable for the Garmin Etrex and write your own firmware updates. For the time being, people have been just changing icons, but there are some cool things to do. For example, I would love to take the very precise time internally (to the milisecond) and display it on the screen. Cheapest unit is $105 at amazon.com (or $110 at sportmart or $130 at thinkgeek)
http://etrex.webz.cz/hack.html
PS: Too bad I'm getting some bullshit about "invalid formkeys" so I have to post AC. And too bad I typed a long explanation on SourceForge bugs and after 'submitting,' I was told to go and log in and my bug report was lost.
The Game Boy Advance and Color (especially) are inexpensive and very well documented. The GBA has an ARM processor which is pretty reasonable, and the GBC has a Z80-like chip which is more "retro". Both are fun. (Expect to pay another $100 or so for a kit to read/write cartridges.)
The challenge may have been won, already, but the price meets your criteria. Maybe you could add memory, install Linux and make it your personal slave. All that love and at garage sale prices, too!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
you want hackable eh? well do i ever have a product for you
get a big giant clever for christmas (do they still make ginsu knives?)
then get a nice big hunking slab of meat
and hack away!
I just love hacking around in my cassiopeia. Not only is it nice and small so it can be played with wherever, but it has an easy to use ide (embedded visual studio) and a serial port just waiting to be hacked. I've convered it into a mini code reader and have been working on writing software to make the unit act as an oscilloscope.
The price? Well...a new one's going to run you about 500$, but we don't need a new one...we need something we can conscientiously hack. Mine was a refurb developer's model which cost my lovely mother $200 with a 90 day warranty direct from casio.com.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
You just can't beat the Dreamcast for a cheap machine to hook up to your TV or stereo and do cool stuff with. The Cybiko has all sorts of wireless Gnutellaish potential. If you are looking for a machine that will be otherwise usefull, all the latest cell phones support J2ME, which could be used to build any number of cool things.
Hack the Boogie Bass!!
Slashdot had a post regarding the hack of a boogie bass last January. http://www.ai.mit.edu/~vona/bass/bass.html
I read this post with virtually no sleep for a couple days and it seemed like the ultimate project. Hang one in you cube!!
Is the machine I always considered the ultimate hacking challenge. It's pretty unorthodox with it's vector display and gives a great perspective on the road PC technology could have taken. Also there's lots of info on it, because nearly everyone that has one uses it as a hacking project.
I've been eyeing up Intrinsyc's CerfCube. It cost $379 but it's worth a look. There was an thread on /. a couple months ago so maybe some /.ers can give you some first hand feedback.
Or maybe you want to consider Buy Nothing Day. If so, get you Christmas Gift Exemption Voucher here.
How about you ask for a cure for your greed?
Maybe it is time for an SGI Indy. Plenty available including some with eight-bit graphics, ideal for a graphics workstation. The operating system can be upgraded to the latest IRIX, and nobody will be able to hack you that easily.
SGI Indy machines might have once sold for 20000 or more, now you can get one for 250, complete with ultra trendy case, top Trinitron monitor, ISDN port, webcam and the wonderful Indigo Magic Desktop.
It's a ~$200 machine...
It's PPC (Okay, not MIPS or ARM), but wouldn't it be cool to get OS X, or at least Darwin, running on it?
It's got DVD (sorta), a G3, an ATI chipset... and since Darwin *is* Open Source, it's entirely possible to get Darwin running on it.
It may be possible, once Darwin runs, to get OS X to run!
GPL Deconstructed
The only problem with PS2 Linux is that it's only available on the Japanese Model, and sadly they have no plans to make it available on the American or European versions of the PS2. See PS2 Linux.Com for the sad news.
On a happier note I've noticed that a Russian Company called Runix has ported the Linux Kernel to PS One. The port doesn't come with installation instructions or anything, but you can get the code.... I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it once I got it though. I don't even have a PSOne.. oh well.
Its been hacked to access its serial port, add a programmable cartridge, and give it a new o/s! A SDK is scheduled to be released by year's end by the manufacturer, Tiger Electronics, which has stated it will encourage hacking.
Hacking ICybie
I-Cybie Fan Site
Wishbook.com has them for $149.99
If you watch Enterprise, you might have seen ads for Biobugs ($40), basically commericialized versions of the robots made by Mark Tilden. Although I don't have one, I have heard from others that they are perfectly hackable.
comp-geeks is a well known troll site it abuses javascript to make gay popups. Please delete the parent mods!!!
I'm just wondering how that post can be seen as funny. I'm pretty sure it was a genuine suggestion about what to do with your money.
I hope I get the chance to metamod that post...
I am sure you'll find a lot of useful information and device listings at http://www.linuxdevices.com/, http://www.linuxdevices.com/products/index.html.
If these guys could get their QuickPad Pro beyond the vaporware stage (It was due out in September, then October. They do have another, older, less attractive product), it would be a great "2nd laptop," very light and efficient, CF storage, runs DOS apps, including programming environments.
o .h tm
Something like the old Tandy Model 102, but waaaay more flexible and useful.
http://www.quickpad.com/products/quickpad_netpr
Hack the DreamCast...heck, I saw it at Target last night for $56 USD here in Boston. I would imagine it's the same price all over the country. it's in the sub-60-buck category, which you cant even get a decent pair of gym shoes for anymore.
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siliconghetto - 26th & pulaski, 60623
The Game Boy Advance and Color (especially) are inexpensive and very well documented. The GBA has an ARM processor
I can speak from experience. GBA is a joy to program for; it's much like programming an MS-DOS PC in C, as once you get your libraries done, everything else is pretty smooth. Start here for tools and documentation, and go here for hardware, specifically the MBV2 cable (load 256 KB programs directly into GBA's RAM) and the Flash Linker (load up to 128 Mbit (16 MB) programs into a flash cartridge). However, try to buy them sooner rather than later, as Nintendo will try to sue the makers out of existence, claiming that the devices are suitable "only for piracy" and ignoring the homebrew development scene.
Will I retire or break 10K?
What about a $185 touchscreen webpad ? - add a 802.11 pcmcia card and linux and, Lo: a wireless browser.
Much more info here, here and here.
Get one of those, and get a cartridge writer... It's got a lot of power (though not as much as the GBA) to work with, and its native assembly language is quite easy to learn. Plus, if you get tired of trying to write stuff for it, you can always download ROMs and play them portably (and without all the dumness that emulators have)
Gameboy Advance?
Dreamcast?
CJE Micros used to sell really cheap (as in $120) RISC PCs to programmers in an attempt to broaden the support for the platform.
Twinkle
Why get a computer? Last week I bought an electric wheel chair, complete and working. I allready have a second hand R/C aircraft radio and some wheels.
This isn't much different from hacking 300a's(drilling & welding) to run in SMP.
Sure it will not run linux, but it will scare the crap out of the familty pet.
Good story, only it's not true! :)
http://www.snopes2.com/holidays/xmas/cross.htm
For $160, you get a Palm IIIxe compatible with 8mb memory, plus the linux software to hack it to your heart's content.
It cost you $300 too! Unless you hack it and make worth $500, that is. :)
I hear B.I.O. Bugs are quite hackable, and are based on work by roboticist Mark Tilden.
The SliMP3 is quite hackable, as the code's all in Perl (see the developer's list).
LEGO MindStorms are a perennial favorite, and are extremely hackable.
And let's not forget TiVo, which is a hacker's playground.
Finally, one of the new Compaq iPaqs can be hours of fun once you install Linux on it and begin having wireless fun with it.
.@.
Duron 850 processor,
256 megs of ram,
20 gig hard drive,
56k modem(yes, it was a software modem, outside of the driver issues, software modems have started to get decent, I'm impressed by the intel chipset)
decent inwin case,
52x cdrom,
8 meg ati xpert 98 video card(they dont game)
audio and 10/100 nic integrated on the mobo (8139 chipset, generic, but not bad, and the audio comes standard with the via amd chipsets.)
It isn't that hard to pull off, the computer shows here are really good, since I live in southern california. At pricewatch.com, you can find similar prices to the computer shows, you just pay a bit more on shipping, order as much as you can from the same dealer and you should be ok since you save on shipping, even if the cost of the ram is two dollars more than somewhere else.
Ditch the modem, and the entire thing will run fine with Linux or $OS_OF_CHOICE. You have to build it yourself, but you end up with a better deal, since you get a machine without any real compromises, you get to pick every part that is in it, not have a cut rate manufacturer stick a bargain motherboard in it, or crappy ram.
One more hint, if you are in the market for an AMD and want to save some cash, ECS is doing some great things right now, the board I got for my parents was 70 bucks and has been rock solid. The integrated 10/100 nic is fine for home use, but if you dont want to use it, blow the 30 bucks on an intel or 3com. Plus this thing also has a promise ata100 controller My fileserver has been running without any issues since I put it together, a duron 600 on an ECS board.
If so, you may get something hackable. On the other hand if you ever posted as AC or was a bad boy, all you'll get is a lump of coal.
-- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
How bout a Motorola M68HC12/11 microcontroller EVB? You can do lots of cool stuff with it, reference manuals for it are pretty cheap and usually of very good quality, and you can even buy pre-built boards for a decent price, and start hacking away on it right away. You can have your very own fighting robot (or whatever turns your crank) in no time.
how about a computer built for your car?
these guys have made a hackable linux based computer that acts like a cd changer. arm processor, harddrive, etc. i wonder what else you can do with it? maybe the world's (physically) fastest web server.
I have two suggestions (or three depending on how you look at them), based on recent experiences.
One is legal, the other isn't quite (unless you're in Canada)
1) TiVo: As has been discussed quite often on here, the TiVo is a fun little toy that you can get for ~$200 at your local electronics megastore. It's a linux box inside, and you can do lots with it (drop it to shell, add additional hard drives, install Ethernet (TiVoNet) and stream stored MPEG files to your other PCs on a LAN, etc.). Check out these links for more info:
http://www.tivofaq.com/hack/
http://slashdot.org/search.pl?query=TiVo
2) DirecTV. This is slightly shady, but still loads of fun. There's a large community of people out there (mostly in Canada, where they don't sell DirecTV service so they're forced to hack it) who spend inordinate amounts of time learning about the DirecTV datastream and how to do crazy things with it. For ~$400, you can get a complete setup tha includes an 'Emulator' that allows you to unlock all channels. The more interesting part is how emulators work (they involve having a Pentium-class PC emulate some functions of the DirecTV access card).
For $80 (for the dish and IRD) + $300 (for an H-Card, emulator hardware, and a cheap $30 emulator PC from eBay) you can have the whole thing, wires, bare circuit boards and all, sitting in your living room. Check these:
http://www.hackhu.com/
http://slashdot.org/search.pl?query=DirecTV
3) This is the hybrid: There's a box out there called a DirecTiVo that combines a TiVo and a DirecTV box (hence the name). If you wish, you can combine these two hacks into one piece of hardware (DirecTiVo boxes support both TiVo tinkering and DirecTV emulation). Neat-o.
--noah
Ferrari and other exotic car rentals in New York
There are lots of web pages with poinetrs to corss compilers for the Game Boy Advanced and development information. As I understant it, you can get a writable flash-cartridge for it for about $175.00
So if you already have a PC to run the tolsl on thats about $275.00-- right in your budget range.
They have a nice devlopers edition that would be a blast to hack. Of course, I am an app devloper, and that kind of stuff gives me a kick.
IANAL... But I play one on
I've got a digital alpha xl-266 that i'll sell to someone... :) 64 megs ram, 2 1-gig scsi drives, an offical 'digital' keyboard to go with if you'd like. email me
- This isn't the sig you're looking for. Move along, move along..
We use Ti-83's!
It's extreem small, uses less power that my cellphone... (1W !!!) and it look realy cool !.
... http://www.lart.tudelft.nl
Specs: 250MIPS (ARM processor), 32MB DRAM, 4MB Flashrom.
Check out their homepage
I've just bought a used TiVo for $100. New units go for between $100 (for a unit that's good only with DirecTV) to $500 or so. Hackable and new sub-$300 TiVos might include a 20-hour unit from Best Buy (IIRC) and a 30-hour unit from here.
Before going further, let me say just what a TiVo is. The one-sentence description is that it's a digital video recorder; it records TV shows to a hard disk much like a VCR records TV to a tape. This description doesn't do the device justice, though. To begin with, if you buffer your live TV through the TiVo, you can get VCR-like effects, such as pausing live TV, performing instant replays, rewinding, and running something in slow motion. You can then hit a button to catch up to the live broadcast during a boring stretch (like a commercial). The devices get even more interesting if you subscribe to the TiVo service, which is $10/month or $250 for a lifetime subscription. When you do this, the TiVo device calls in using a built-in modem once a day and downloads TV listings. You can then search them to find programs you want to watch (no more need for TV Guide or the like). You can tell the TiVo to record specific shows, or entire series. In the latter case, the TiVo will do so even if the show changes time slot (but not if it's rescheduled at the last minute, say because a sporting event runs over). You can tell it to search for shows or movies by title, actor name, and so on, so if you like, say, Sandra Bullock, you can feed that name into the unit and it'll record all her films that it finds in the listings. You can tell the TiVo to record "suggestions," which are programs that match your profile of likes and dislikes that it builds up if you give ratings to shows.
Anyhow, TiVos are very hackable. They run on Linux, and use a 50MHz PowerPC CPU. Among other things, you can add or replace a hard drive. You might therefore get a low-end TiVo and expand it to over 100 hours capacity for the cost of an 80GB hard disk. You can also add an Ethernet card to connect the thing permanently to your LAN. (Even without the Ethernet card, you can get a bash prompt or PPP connection over its serial port.) There's a TiVo hacking FAQ available. It's a bit outdated in some important ways, but it's a good way to get a feel for what you can do with the device.
FWIW, I've not yet hacked my TiVo in any way (I've had it for just a few days), but I plan to upgrade the hard disk and get a serial connection going within a week or so.
Get yourself a cpu chip, a bundle of ICs and wire-wrap sockets, some board to hold the whole thing together, and a power-supply from a scrap PC.
For the cpu the 6809 - if you can still get them - is a really lovely set of instructions. Another possibility is an RCA 1802 or whatever is available nowadays. Another set of instructions with power beyond anything else at the time. Now hack away. Think of a FORTH-like inner interpreter for the 1802/Cosmac in less than 40 bytes! I made a multi-channel datalogger with one of those with only 256 bytes of RAM and 2k bytes of ROM. Those were the ( good old ? ) days of hacking. Forget distractions like Chistmas and new fangled notions like Linux until at least next February. Have some real fun.
300.00 would get enough parts for a LART and then some:
http://www.lart.tudelft.nl/
-ghostis
Computer Science is all about trying to find the right wrench to bang in the right screw. -T.Cumbo?
Plus shipping charges. I haven't used it in a while and want it to have a good home. :-)
It has a 52 MB HD (plenty of room for this machine), a 68030 processor, 6 MB RAM and a high-density floppy, and I'll give you the 1942 monitor, a huge box of software, and USR 14.4 modem, too.
Is this thing silent?
Because I would like to use it as an incoming e-mail monitor/mp3 player/tail -f viewer of serber log files/ picture viewer for pictures fresh from my digital camera.
I would like to leave it on 24 hours a day plugged into my stereo which is not far from where I sleep. I want a silent terminal and this thing seems ideal.
If someone confirms this thing has no fans or only silent ones, I'm buying one right away.
Basic stamp microcontroller (www.parallaxinc.com).
Gotta get your feet a little dirty with both hardware and software.
PC/104 embedded processors and modules. www.pc104.org.
The Tuxscreen is ARM and only $99!!
go to tuxscreen.net
Get a cheap TiVO (~$100 for closeout 14hr units).
Add a TiVOnet Ethernet card (~$100).
It runs Linux so you can have fun adapting all the existing tools to work with a 16MB 66Mhz PPC environment.
Host your website on your TiVO. Run a PHP/PostgreSQL backend. Throw in some servlets for extra fun.
I've been looking at two toys : 1) An Ericsson R380s or R380e mobile phone that runs the Psion OS.
2) A microcontroller with ethernet. No it won't run linux. (It's supposed to be small). But it's dead cheap. Developer kit is here and a single module is here . Documentation and stuff is all online.
I have neither of these but they seem to be fun.
Nokia mediaterminal looks interesting, running Linux/mozilla and is an OST, and the specs looks really good.It will be availible in Sweden in fall 2001 and in the early half of 2002 in selected parts of Europe and North America... little late for christmas..(not for me.. :)
t ml
http://www.nokia.com/multimedia/mediaterminal.h
http://www.ostdev.net
http://www.nokia.com/multimedia/tech_specs.html
hmm the webpage also says that a dev-kit will be availible the 3:rd quarter of 2001...
/K
Circuit City is now selling the Phillips DirecTiVo (DSR-6000R) for $99. Orbitsat.com has the (nearly identical) Hughes unit for $79. Note that the Hughes unit requires a power-splitter in order to install a second hard drive. All newer Philips units (serial number 4704xxxx and above) are single drive and therefore easiest to HD upgrade.
I've been enjoying a standalone TiVo for a while, upgraded it, and just recently went satellite with DirecTiVo. The integration, dual tuners, fast(er) channel changing, and perfect digital picture are great. Now I am curious about the DirecTiVo tinkering. I have already hacked and upgraded my new DTiVo unit to 100+ hours -- it's a joy. I was under the impression, though, that opting for the integrated unit would make DTV emulation harder. From what I understood, test H cards and emulation require that you leave your DTV receiver's phone line UNplugged. Yet, all TiVo's and DirecTiVo units require the phone line to check in to TiVo central. I know that the guide data comes in via the satellite stream, so the phone calls to TiVo are that much shorter. But without the TiVo phone calls, it can't synchronize the clock, and TiVo starts to complain after a few weeks of not being able to connect. I have actually heard of a story where TiVo called asking a customer if there was a problem, and why was he recording shows from channels he wasn't set to receive. (DirecTV and TiVo are info partners, I presume.) Would "opting out" help here?
Most H card/emulator enthusiast web sites suggest using a standalone TiVo with a seperate DTV receiver for this reason -- and I'm curious to know if there's any news I'm missing.
One thing I forgot to mention about that $99 Circuit City deal for the Philips DSR-6000R. The dual LNB dish (needed for dual tuner recording) and professional installation are included FREE.
They now have the singing fish hacks availible at http://www.ai.mit.edu/~vona/bass/bass.html. They're funny as hell, especially when you consider all the funny things you can make it say.
Make mine CowboyNeal!
-- Eddy Johnson
Anonymous Coward: (n.) 1. nerd at school or library. 2. karmawhore in training. 3. embarrased prep.
Most of the old systems were pretty much self-sufficient, so it's just a matter of hooking them up to the TV, plugging them in, and turning them on...no need to load editors, compilers, etc since BASIC was in ROM and ready to go at powerup.
And regarding BASIC, I can hear the sneering already, but think of it as a challenge: what's more likely to be a fun hack, writing C++ for an embedded system (in days when that can mean a Pentium-class CPU, megs of memory, even running Linux) or making a Timex-Sinclair do something cool with only 2K memory and BASIC to work with?
These cameras support "scripting":
KODAK DC290
KODAK DC265
KODAK DC260
KODAK DC220
With GPS coords I can create a map of the places
I've been. Click on the map and it'll show the pictures taken there (or near there). Not sure what processor they use though???
http://tinyurl.com/3t236
You can find it at http://www.ibutton.com/.
There is the Royal DaVinci PDA (http://www.royal.com/content/pda/), a PDA based on the Motorola Dragonball CPU, has 4MB of memory, and costs about $99 retail.
"We sat and watched...as the Moon rose...for the very first time" - "The Carnaval is Over", Dead Can Dance
It's an IR-controlled silver plastic spider with a bunch of cool features. One of which is the price -- only $26
What about an EPOC based PDA like the osaris. Perl (THE hackers language) should run on it, portable, and they cost like 195 euro's here in the Netherlands for the 16MB version, which has a CF slot I think..
Anybody experiences with hacking them??
I just bought a DirecTiVo from Circuit City for $99. It's a Philips receiver with a 35 hour TiVo built right in.. quite a steal.
According to Apple, it isn't a Macintosh product.
Hate to sound like an ad, but I bought a Sun these guys and they really took good care of me. Nice to see a company that took time with me (I only bought a Sparc 20) like I was a big spender.